About

On 16th January, 1919 the government passed a bill whose noble goal was to improve the quality of life and the health of the citizens of the United States. The Noble Experiment, as it is called today (or Prohibition in the USA back in the day), has turned out to be a fiasco and had a number of side effects.

One of those side effects was the creation of a moonshine black market and the blooming of organized crime. While playing '1919: The Noble Experiment' you shall assume the leadership of such a ragtag band of mobsters.

You become a moonshiner whose sole purpose is to make high quality whisky for those who aren't ready to accept the Prohibition just yet. Obviously it's highly illegal and the penalties for making and distributing alcohol are harsh. Why then would you do such a thing?

Is it money that motivates you? Whisky is in very short supply and customers are ready to pay a small fortune for a bottle.

Or perhaps for the fame and glory in the underworld of the best and most efficient merchants?

Or maybe it's for the influence that you can attain through connections with powerful people? The kind of people, who do not fully follow the letter of the law? That is up to you.

No matter how many Stretch Goals will be unlocked, the shipping costs stay the same! Please, remember that you will get all applicable stretch goals for free.

1919: The Noble Experiment is a card game, where you have to manage time, workers and resources to make quality whisky as efficiently as possible. Time is an important factor, since your competitors and you share the same client base and they will try to steal your customers from right under your nose. Illegal pub owners do not like to wait as well, and the longer you take to deliver, the less weight your name will carry.

Every round begins with hiring workers. The draft mechanics enables you to assemble a team that's best suited to fulfill your plans or efficiently disrupting your opponent's plans. Your actions and wealth will determine if you can afford to hire specialists or just a rank and file drivers, who are adept at driving a car full of contraband...

All you need to make whisky are natural resources - a few kinds of grain and water. They can be easily obtained from the market. While it is available to every player, remember: first come, first served. Take two different ingredients or all of the same kind. Be careful as not to let your greed blind you and hinder your plans. Each card has monetary value as well, so bear that in mind - money is power.

After obtaining the ingredients you can start distilling whisky. The necessary hardware is accessible to all players. However, early bird gets the worm - the first player to use a building in a round gets a big discount.

Each distillery is capable of making one kind of whisky - Irish, Scotch, American and Canadian. Select your ingredients and visit all the right places to deliver whisky as fast as you can.

In addition to the four distilleries, there are four other buildings available.

Whisky has to be poured into bottles. You can do this at the Bottling Plant. Again, the first player gets to use this building is rewarded. He will be able to pour more bottles in one turn, if he can afford it...

Mixing Plant is where you can make the fifth kind of whisky - Blended. While blended whisky isn't as prestigious, it is still very much in demand, due to its low price. You can use the Mixing Plant to transform your quality whisky into a larger quantity of the cheaper sort.

The Black Market is where we can exchange ingredients for cash. Why would you need cash, when you can pay with Ingredients? Exchanging ingredients for cash frees up one of seven card slots on your hand. Your warehouse has to be filled to the brim.

The Marketplace allows players to obtain ingredients directly from the Ingredient card pile. It's risky, but on the other hand, your competitors will not know what you're up to.

Thread lightly. The authorities aren't gone, apart from maybe going to buy some booze off you. At a crucial moment your plans may be foiled by a lawful (or cleverly hiding his corruption) Mayor. Surely, a small bribe will place you in his good graces...

Every action, excluding using the Marketplace, involves the need to dispatch one of your workers. For this alone the number of actions a player is allowed during one round is limited to four. Stay vigilant and do not stall for time - the moment your opponent discards their last worker, the round ends. Do not tarry and keep an eye on your opponents - time is of the essence.

After each round the buildings return to their premium state. However, at the same time fulfilling the contracts becomes less lucrative. In time, clients will withdraw their orders entirely and opportunities to earn Prestige Points are lost.

The game ends when two Locale Card piles are depleted. The clients' requirements are based on the level of their Locale. The smaller and sleazier the pub, the less whisky required, but awards fewer points. The Locales are divided into three levels, each level is represented by 6 cards. When the cards from two out of three levels are depleted the game ends, and you tally the points. The player with the most Prestige Points is declared the winner.

If you want to learn more about the game's mechanics, click above button to download the game rules in english! Please remember though, that this is not the final version. There will be changes in graphic design and one or two minor changes will be added. However, all the main mechanics are finished and tested - check them out to learn how to succeed in 1919: The Noble Experiment!

Copy of 1919: The Noble Experiment

165 cards and a rulebook in a 5,6x8,4x1,6 in (21,2x14,2x4cm) box.

Digital Artbook - collection of in-game graphics in high resolutions, concept arts and early drafts of the game. Gives an exclusive insight into creation of the unique graphic design of the game.

Limited Reward - get your photo recreated 1919: The Noble Experiment style! Send us one photo of yourself (or anyone you would like to see recreated) and give us some time. The high resolution artwork will be send to you, as well as get a feature in Digital Artbook. Presented below is an example of such re-work based on the photo of game authors:

Become a part of the mob! If you choose this limited reward, the graphic designer of the game will recreate your photo in 1919: The Noble Experiment Style and we will create a worker card, representing you in the game. That card will be then added to every single copy, sold on Kickstarter. So you will have a chance to become a special, fully playable characters in our card game. The artwork will be also added to the digital artbook. Are you ready to become one of the moonshine undergrounds finest? Don't hesitate, there isn't much time nor places left to join the mob!

We are the Black Monk Games, a Polish publishing company that supplies our homeland with the greatest board games for many years now. We took it upon ourselves to localize the games 'Munchkin' and 'Zombicide', both of which were received quite well. Time for a change. We would like to give something back - a chance for you to play a game by two Polish authors.

Michał Jagodziński - drummer, everything-zombie-related fan, board games and 8-bit music lover and almost-pro basketball player.Professionally - graphic designer, working with Jarek at one of the local advertising agencies in Silesia, Poland. Responsible for the mechanic side of 1919: The Noble Experiment.

Jarosław Wajs - having a degree in computer graphics, works at advertising agency as graphic designer. Not (yet) a professional game designer, 1919: The Noble Experiment is his first project of this kind. "My real passion is drawing, I'm currently gettng ready to create my own comic. Publishing 1919: The Noble Experiment will be very valuable experience. It will give me more energy to work on my next projects, continuing my work as a game designer and illustrator."

This is our first kickstarter campaign, albeit not the first crowdfund we've initiated. We believe that through our cooperation with publishers from over the ocean earned us the experience necessary to conduct this campaign fairly efficiently and without any difficulties.

However, we're always ready to overcome a challenge - live and learn!

Risks and challenges

As mentioned above, this is our first kickstarter, but not the first crowdfunding campaign we're a part of. The game will be produced locally, in Poland. The printing factory whose help we are enlisting operates on an international level and has always came through for us. There is a certain amount of difficulty with transporting goods overseas, however. We will do everything in our power to keep the deadlines, but sea freight is prone to delays. Getting our bulk shipment past the US customs might be a challange too. Those are the two most prominent issues that can adversely affect the deliveries. But we already know that Alliance Game Distributors (the biggest game distributor in US) will take care of sending games to you within North America. Other orders (from Europe and rest of the world) will be shipped from our European warehouse in Poland. So NO custom fees or any additional cost for North American and European Union backers.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 35 or more
About US$ 35

The Game Is On.
Thank you for your support! You get: one copy of 1919: The Noble Experiment, Digital Artbook in .pdf format and all applicable Stretch Goals! *FREE SHIPPING IN EUROPEAN UNION and UNITED STATES.
Add $8 USD to ship outside the US and EU.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 60 or more
About US$ 60

Promising Gangster.
You will get two copies of 1919: The Noble Experiment, as well as two sets of all unlocked, applicable Stretch Goals. Digital Artbook in .pdf format will be sent to your e-mail address.
*Free shipping in the US

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 60 or more
About US$ 60

Promising Gangster. You will get two copies of 1919: The Noble Experiment, as well as two sets of all unlocked Stretch Goals. Digital Artbook in .pdf format will be sent to your e-mail address. *FREE SHIPPING IN EUROPEAN UNION and UNITED STATES. Add $12 USD to ship outside the US and EU.

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 150 or more
About US$ 150

Special Treatment. Graphic designer will recreate the photo of yourself so it looks like a part of the 1919: The Noble Experiment universe.
The artwork will be featured in the Digital Artbook, sent to every backer.
Includes all the rewards included in The Game Is On pledge level!

Kickstarter is not a store.

Pledge US$ 250 or more
About US$ 250

Join the mob!
Our graphic designer will recreate the photo of yourself so it looks like a part of the 1919: The Noble Experiment universe. We will use it to create a fully playable worker card, representing you in the game. The card will be then add to every single copy of the 1st edition of "1919". The artwork will be featured in the Digital Artbook, sent to every backer. Includes all the rewards included in "The Game Is On" reward level! Free shipping worldwide.